Customize Your View

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Change the time horizon in the appointment list.
  
• Set the number of days displayed on the Gantt.
  
• Customize the Gantt’s color palette.
  

Sign Up for a Developer Edition Org with Field Service

To complete the challenge in this unit, you need a special Developer Edition org that contains Field Service with the managed package and our sample data.

1. Click Create Playground, and then click Yes, Create Playground.
   
2. Your new org is automatically attached to your Trailhead account.
   
3. Make note of your org's expiration date and complete this badge before then.
   
4. Click Launch to open the playground.
   

Change the Time Horizon

As a dispatcher, having the right time horizon for your schedule view is essential for staying on top of your workload. By default, the dispatcher console shows appointments for the current day, a focused view that works well for day-to-day operations. But sometimes you need a broader picture.

That's where the time horizon setting comes in. Whether you're tracking carry-over work from previous days, monitoring appointments that are running behind schedule, or simply want more context before making scheduling decisions, expanding your time horizon gives you the visibility you need. For example, you might want to look back over the past few days to catch any appointments that were deferred, rescheduled, or not yet resolved. Or maybe you want to plan ahead and see what's coming up later in the week so you can start thinking about resource allocation now.

The dispatcher console gives you full control over this window. You can set how far back and how far forward you want to look, so your schedule view always reflects the context that matters most to your operations. Let's review how you can do this.

1. From the App Launcher, search for and select Classic Dispatch Console to open the dispatcher console.
   
2. In the service appointment list, select and select Dispatch Console Settings.
   
3. For the Scheduling window length, enter the time horizon as 3.
   
4. Save.
   
5. Select , and ensure the following fields are selected:
   
   • Due Date
     
   • Scheduled Start
     
   • Scheduled End
     
6. Next to Horizon, select today’s date.
   

This shows you the appointments that have a due date, a scheduled start date, or a scheduled end date in the past 3 days. You can check all the appointments due in the past 3 days and make sure they’re completed or are ready to complete. You can also look at appointments that should have started or ended in the last 3 days to make sure that they’re on schedule.

Show More Days on the Gantt

Just like the service appointment list, the Gantt chart gives you flexible options for adjusting your time horizon. You're not locked into a single view, and that flexibility is by design. Different situations call for different perspectives. A dispatcher managing a tight daily schedule might want a granular hour-by-hour view. Someone planning resources for the week ahead might want to zoom out and see the bigger picture across multiple days.

The Gantt gives you several ways to broaden or narrow your context, so you always have the right level of detail for the decisions you're making. Let's take a look at how to put those controls to work.

• The date displayed in the Gantt (1): By default, the Gantt shows today's schedule, but you can navigate back a day or two whenever you need more context or want to review recent activity.
  
• Ways to set the day displayed (2): Use the forward and backward arrows to move through the schedule one day at a time. Alternatively, use the calendar picker to jump directly to any specific date you want to view.
  
• Ways to change what is displayed in the Gantt (3): You can adjust how many days are visible at once in the Gantt. Displaying two or more days at a time gives you a broader scope, making it easier to understand how scheduling changes ripple across your calendar and affect overall resource availability.
  

Adjust the Gantt’s Color Palette

Staying on top of due dates is a critical part of effective dispatching. The last thing you want is for a high-priority appointment to slip through the cracks simply because it didn’t stand out visually in your schedule.

That's where custom color palettes come in. The Gantt chart lets you define color-coding rules based on appointment data, turning your visual schedule into an at-a-glance priority map. Instead of having to open each appointment record to check its due date, you can set up colors that surface urgency directly on the Gantt, so critical jobs are immediately visible. Here’s how you can do this.

1. In the dispatcher console, select the filter icon at the top of the Gantt.
   
2. Select the PALETTES tab.
   
3. Select Open palette editor.
   
   

4. Select New Palette.
   
5. For name, enter: Past Due Date.
   
6. Select the field Due Date on which to base the palette.
   
7. Define a color spectrum that suits your needs.
   
8. Select Active to make the palette available to dispatchers.
   
9. Save.
   

Now that you’ve created the palette, you need to apply it to the Gantt so your dispatchers can see it. Applying a palette changes the background color of appointments on the Gantt and adds an appropriately colored horizontal bar above appointments on the map.

1. Select the filter icon at the top of the Gantt, and then select the Palettes tab.
   
2. Select the newly created Due Date Approaching palette in the dropdown list.
   
3. Select Apply Palette.
   
4. Close the window.
   

Reloading the Gantt or changing which service appointments are shown in the appointment list reverts to the default color palette.

Custom color palettes are just one example of how flexible and configurable the dispatcher console really is. The more you work with it, the more you'll find ways to tailor it to your team's specific needs and workflows.

Next Up

No matter how well you set things up, field service is unpredictable by nature. Schedules shift, priorities change, and conflicts pop up throughout the day. In the next unit, you look at how the dispatcher console helps you stay on top of those situations by identifying violations and walking you through the process of dispatching appointments to your mobile workers.

Check the Challenge

Based on what you learned here, follow the instructions in the challenge to create a new palette. Once you’ve completed all the steps, select Check Challenge for 500 points to move on.

Resources

• Salesforce Help: Control Which Field Service Appointments Appear in the Classic Dispatcher Console
• Salesforce Help: Filter the Gantt in Field Service
• Salesforce Help: Color-Code the Gantt